I got to have a white Christmas!

I hope yours was whatever color you were hoping for it to be!

Goodbye little bloom box

So some excitement today!

I made my first sale on etsy today. It wasn't much,

but it was the boost I needed to make it through this week of finals.

So goodbye little bloom box, safe travels.

I hope you like your new home!

Churros!

My Grandma sent me a recipe for Churros,

so my friend Carly and I decided to give it a try.

You need:

- 2 cups of water

- 1tsp of grated orange peel

- 1/2 tsp salt

- 1 1/2 cups flour

- 2 eggs

- 1 quart Corn Oil

- 1/4 cup sugar

- 1 tsp Cinnamon

First boil the water, orange peel, and salt

in a sauce pan over medium heat.

Add the 1 1/2 cups flour all at once, leave it on the heat and stir vigorously!

Vigorously is the word the recipe uses and it means it.

The flour is hard to work in, so use a stiff spoon.

Mix until the mixture smooths out,

and forms a ball that leaves the sides of the pan.

Now take it off the heat.

Add the eggs, one at a time, again stirring vigorously

after each addition until the mixture is smooth.

Let the batter stand 5 min.

Now is a good time to start heating your oil.

You need to pour the corn oil into a large skillet to a

depth of 1/2 inch filling no more than 1/3 full.

Heat it over medium head to 350 degrees.

Spoon the batter into a cookie press fitted with a star shape,

or in a heavy pastry bag with a large star shaped tip.

The recipe says "Do not substitute any other shape or tip.

Churros can explode when cooked in hot oil if not star-shaped."

We piped the batter onto a plate with a little

oil on it so the batter wouldn't stick

Then cut the batter off with a pair of scissors.

Scoop the churro up, and set it down in the hot oil.

It only takes a 2-3 minutes, flip it over once.

When they turn golden they are done!

Put them on paper towels,

or on the paper bag your groceries came in.

When the churros aren't shiny anymore put them in a bowl

with the cinnamon and sugar mixed together,

and coat the churro.

Now your done! They are amazing when they are warm,

so enjoy them right a way!

Staff Development

So I have the pleasure of being the boss of four glorious resident assistants,

From left to right: Joel, Megan, Jennifer(my lovely boss),

myself, Jordan, and Brittany

We make up the staff of Trout Hall.

Each week we all get together and have a fun little party

called Staff Meeting!

This week for Staff Development I broke out my

little metal fortune cookie,

Which is filled with the many many fortunes I have collected over the years.

We each chose four, and then went around and played the only game you can play with fortunes

These are the ones we chose.

Your love life will be happy and harmonious

Be prepared to receive something special with no strings attached.

Continue your present conversation for some valuable insight.

Use your eloquence where it will do the most good.

An artist is not paid for his labor but for his vision.

Tomorrow your creative wide will shine forth with exceptional ideas.

Keep your head up; you never know where love will develop.

Next week, your luck color will be green!

It is quality rather than quantity that matters. Do a good job tomorrow.

You are a practical person with your feet on the ground.

True love is when you are still dancing long after the music has stopped.

Find Release from your cares, have a good time.

Life is a tragedy for those who feel, and a comedy for those who think.

Golden hours are coming to you.

The only way to have a friend is to be one.

A four-wheeled adventure will soon bring you happiness.

You are appreciated by your company.

Where there is a will, there is a way.

I hope you had a good giggle. We did.

Fun with a Pumpkin

So yesterday I had fun with a leaf,

Tonight to keep myself entertained while on duty in the

Residence Hall, I carved this pumpkin!

This one has to be my best so far!

Happy Halloween!

Fun with a leaf

Every time I see these leaves I see a mustache.

Happy Autumn Everyone!

And another T-shirt

So I have created another t-shirt for another group, this time its

Pittstate's Residence Hall Assembly.

The theme for homecoming is Stories and Legends, this is what I came up with.

This is what I looked like while I was making it.

Thats right, I created it with my mind. I can photoshop telepathically.

Farmers Market

I had a glorious weekend this past weekend!

One of the highlights every weekend for me is the Farmers Market here in Pittsburg!

I sell greeting cards, wood burned boxes, and little button bags with my friend Cindee Harvey who creates the most fantastic jewelry.

My mother found the flower table at an auction. It folds in half and has a handle! I couldn't have asked for anything more perfect for the farmers market!

Cindee's jewelry is all handmade using semi-presious stones.

Everything she makes is so light weight and wearable. I don't know how she does it!

The Calendar Books are still for sale!

You can get one at the farmers market, or check it out online at

http://www.blurb.com/user/AlyshaCoy

For more on the farmers market, check it out on facebook!

Just become a fan of Pittsburg's Farmers Market.

Also, the Sousa Road t-shirt below won the best sectional t-shirt for the Pride of the Plains Marching Band! There is a rumor going around that they may be for sale.

I'll keep you all posted.

Thats all for now!

Whew,

So I have been quite busy lately.

I'm loving looking over this residence hall,

and my glorious group of RA's.

Next week we are having Pirate week, a week long celebration of

Talk like a Pirate Day!

I've also been working on t-shirts for a couple of groups on campus.

This one is for the sousaphone section of the Pride of the Plains Marching Band

Their featured show this year features Beatles Music.

There will be at least one more t-shirt to come!

PSU Housing T-shirt

I had the opportunity to create the logo for Pittsburg State University Housing Theme this year, along with the T-shirt for the Resident Assistances and RHA members.

I think everything turned out really well. Hopefully everyone likes them!

Body Art

The other day I got into my mini van and sat on a penny that had been laying in the seat for some time geting warm in the sun.

It just so happened that it had gotten warm enough to brand itself into the back of my leg.

I'm now and forever going to be sporting Abraham Lincoln.

Illustration Friday

Another illustration for Illustration Friday.
This week's word was worn.

This is a gouache painting I did as a color study. Its of the windows in Porter Hall, which are currently being riped out and replaced. Its sad to think they won't be there next year.

Illustration Friday

I've started participating in this lovely little thing called

Illustration Friday.

This is the first of what should be many illustration.

The prompt for this week was Drifting

Art Night Photos

Art Night at Starbucks was a success!

Larry was a peach and helped me move and hang all of my art work.

He even posed for me like his pin hole portrait even though he didn't want to.

Holly and the Bongo Girls, (yes they all are bongo girls) came and were absolutely fabulous. The night wouldn't have been as glorious if they hadn't been there.

My art displays turned out really well.

These are some new bracelets that I have been working on, they come in every color under the sun so if you would like one let me know.

These are the bud mixed media pieces that I did last semester. I had some problems getting them to stay up in the window like that but they looked really lovely with the light coming through them.

Even though the art was pretty beautiful, the people who came to support it, and the artists were just as lovely!

Thanks to everyone who came! It was really wonderful evening that lifted my spirits immensely. I am now ready to kick start my art making for the summer!

Be looking for some new work!

Monkey Bread

Monkey Bread is something that my mother made when I was a kid, and I have made throughout my college career for my friends. It's a gloriously cheap treat to make, and completely fantastic for any gathering.

Food Supplies You Need: Brown Sugar, Cane Sugar, Cinnamon, 4 Small cheap cans of plain ol' Biscuits, 1/2 Stick of Butter

You will also need a bunt cake pan, a bowl for melting the butter in, a sealable container to shake stuff in, cooking spray, and a pretty plate to put the monkey bread on when you are done.

For 4 small cans of biscuits, put 3/4 cup to 1 cup of cane sugar, and brown sugar in the sealable container, and as much cinnamon as you see fit. Stir/shake it all up till there aren't any lumps. It should look like sand.

Melt a 1/4th of the stick of butter in bowl. I have found if you only use 1/4th of the stick at a time you don't run out and the biscuits don't get soggy.

Rip the biscuits in half, drop them into the butter, and stir them around a bit so they are coated.

Now put the buttered biscuits into the sealable tub with the stirred up sugar.

And Shake! When they are covered they should look like the little sugar biscuits you get at Chinese Restaurants.

Put the sugared biscuits into the bunt cake pan making sure that they are evenly spread out.

If there is any sugar left over, just sprinkle it over the top.

Pop the pan into the oven. Just follow the biscuit tube for temperature instructions. I have found that it takes the monkey bread about twice the baking time as the tube instructions say to bake the biscuits. It doesn't hurt to check it every 5 min or so after it has hit the 10 min mark.

This is a great time to get some crafting done.

The Monkey bread is done when it has puffed up to the top of the pan, the sugar is bubbling up the sides, the top is starting to get golden brown, and when you dig down into it with a fork, the middle pieces are no longer gummy.

There is a very fine line between burnt, and under done monkey bread. When ever you think it is getting close to being done, its ok to hover around the oven, being paranoid and checking it every 2 min or so.

Once its done put your fancy plate on top and flip!

And there you have it! Monkey Bread!

Once you have the sugar and butter, which you can buy for pretty cheap in large portions, you can make several monkey bread batches for the price of biscuits. Mine were 39 cents a can